


A Lab Coats And Goggles Kind of Day

by spocksbrowneyes



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: And Snakes Like Him, But I love her., But I regret nothing, Fluff, Hurt Spock (Star Trek), I Made Up Crackers the Python., M/M, Spock Has a Bad Day, Spock Likes Snakes, This Is STUPID, and vice versa, so does Jim
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:35:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24777745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spocksbrowneyes/pseuds/spocksbrowneyes
Summary: By noon, it was what all those in Sciences liked to call a “lab coats and googles kind of day”. While to most it sounds like a chill day, full of experiments, but no. It meant so much was going wrong that if you do so much as open turbolift doors on the same floor as a science lab, whether your shirt’s blue, yellow, or red, a science officer will appear out of nowhere, and tell you to either get out or put on the gear and help out with whatever absolute disaster was plaguing the labs.
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Spock
Comments: 5
Kudos: 102
Collections: Crackers the Python A Collection of all my Works Featuring the Glorious Noodle Ball





	A Lab Coats And Goggles Kind of Day

Spock shuffled into his and Jim’s shared quarters. He looked around, Jim wasn’t there, but he could hear the sound of the shower running. Spock let out a small sigh, slipping off his boots and proceeding the rest of the way in, shutting the door behind him. He collapsed down in their desk chair and pulled out his reports for the day. 

There were far more than usual, due to the fact that he had nearly 5 damage reports and 6 injury reports on top of his normal reports. Why? Because while everybody else had a normal, calm day in transit to their next destination, Sciences had a chemical spill that flooded 2 labs at 9:30, and as a result, by 10:00, the newly discovered Andorian Ferrets they were studying got out of their enclosures. And for course, it didn’t stop there. 

By noon, it was what all those in Sciences liked to call a “lab coats and googles kind of day”. While to most it sounds like a chill day, full of experiments, but no. It meant so much was going wrong that if you do so much as open turbolift doors on the same floor as a science lab, whether your shirt’s blue, yellow, or red, a science officer will appear out of nowhere, and tell you to either get out or put on the gear and help out with whatever absolute disaster was plaguing the labs.

Because by noon today, Spock had run the whole  _ Enterprise _ 4 times along with 2 other Lieutenants chasing after those fuzzy little bastards. But no more than 15 minutes after they got back, the 3 that were still loose in Sciences had caught the attention of Crackers, a full-grown ball python that someone had tried to bring along as a pet, but had escaped and terrified the more ophidiophobic members of the crew, so Jim had her confiscated to live a nice peaceful life in Sciences. 

So, by 13:45, Crackers was out too, terrariums of plants were knocked over, a record amount of beakers were broken too. The ferrets had gotten into a kind of plant they’d gotten from a shipment from Yorktown that bared particularly sugary fruit, so know they were out again of an insane sugar high. And that was were the trouble really got started.

Luckily, no one had gotten hurt in the chemical spill, those injuries were always nasty, and truth be told, Spock didn’t want to have to explain why someone will never regain touch in their arm or hand again to McCoy or Starfleet. Again. But of course, what can go wrong, will go wrong. Because just as an Ensing finished cleaning up a broken beaker, somebody tripped and fell into her, sending both of them to Medbay with concussions from slamming their heads into each other and the counter.

After that came two engineers who had come to fix the doors to the ferret enclosures, only to become victims of an overly energetic ferret stampede and were sent up with scratches all over their arms. Spock himself had fallen victim to something similar himself, only on his cheek. However, he hadn’t gone to sickbay, he really couldn’t he was in charge of this part of the ship, and it couldn’t have him elsewhere at the moment.

The 5th injury fell upon a Yeoman, who was going to get a large carnivorous plant out of the botany lab before it got aggravated, and had a ferret for lunch. Only, it was too late, and instead of taking out its hunger on a chaotically energetic weasel, it took it out on her hand instead. Luckily, she still has her two hands and all her fingers.

The final injury that was reported to sickbay was stuck on a Lieutenant who had an allergic reaction to a flower coming from Orion. Sparing the gross details, in short, he won’t be on duty for the rest of the week, and whoever looked at him in sickbay was going to need a change of clothes.

Spock didn’t really know how many injuries there were. More than 7, he knew that much. 6 had been sent to the medbay because Spock had either seen it happen or been consulted about it. But he knew there were at least 7, because he himself had sustained a slash to the cheek, and while carrying Crackers back to her terrarium she was startled by yet another crash or bang and whatnot and had taken her fear out on Spock’s left hand. With her teeth.

Bite aside, Spock had placed her back in her enclosure, turned the sound barrier on so she wasn’t in fear all night, and locked the ferrets in their newly repaired accommodations. He’d also taken an extra 5 minutes to make sure the door was locked at the end of his shift. And that had led him here. Slumped in a chair, in the dark. Hand and cheek bleeding.

“Lights,” Spock said, and the lights came on, probably the only thing that had gone right that day. 

He began to type up his reports, only to realize that,  _ oh yeah, pythons have teeth on their top and bottom jaws, so there are bite on the top  _ **_and_ ** _ bottom of my hand. That’s just perfect. Now there’s green blood on my PADDs. This is great. _

While it didn’t really matter as he shielded it deeply in his mind and never voiced it, Spock would admit to himself, that his internal dialogue with himself did have a tendency to be quite sarcastic, he concluded it to be a result of his half-Human nature. But what he wouldn’t admit, was that as illogical is it was, it was almost freeing in a way, a warped form of calming.

But, thoughts aside, Spock did realize that he should probably at least wash it. Shuffling over on exhausted legs to the small sink in the room’s kitchenette, he thought of how it was ultimately beneficial to him that the snake had her teeth cleaned yesterday. He hissed a bit when the water hit the wound. He probably should’ve gone to the medbay, his hands were quite fragile and sensitive. But he’d had most severe wounds before, and he had been fine.

A more illogical part of why he didn’t want to go to the medbay was that he had grown fond of the reptile. There hadn’t been any snakes on Vulcan, and he’d grown fond of those kept in the biology labs at the academy. Having grown fond of those snakes, and the fact that they were in excellent health, he tended to hide his injuries if they were to inflict one on him. They were all a result of fear, an outside source triggering an internal reaction, as old as the species. It wasn’t really their fault, and they didn’t have blatantly malicious intent. However, Spock didn’t know many people who could see that, and he didn’t want Crackers to be punished for something she couldn’t control. Plus, he’d spent a lot of time with her, she had been very scared and Spock had been the only one she allowed to touch her.

As a result of her lack of fur, when he held her, he could feel her emotion as well. It was nowhere near as complex as that of a human, but the reptile found Spock’s calm demeanor to be, well, calming. She had always been gentle with him and vice versa.

Spock heard the whoosh of a door opening and looked up from his hands to see Jim standing in the doorway, wearing sweatpants with no shirt looking at Spock, a little confused.

“What are you doing?” Jim asked, a bit of laughter in his voice.

Spock raised his eyebrow, “I am washing my hands, Jim.”

Jim approached his boyfriends, confused but smiling, “Are you doing experiments in our kitchen or something?”

Spock tilted his head slightly, “I do not understand what information you gathered to come to that conclusion.”

Jim laughed, “Spock, you have on safety glasses and a lab coat. Did you hit your head or something?”

Spock paused and then realized that he never took off his lab coat or glasses. 

Sliding off his goggles he replied, “No, I do not believe that my head collided with anything.”

Spock looked at his boyfriend, who was still looking at him, but he couldn’t tell if he was perplexed or concerned.

Jim tilted his cheek so he could see it, “Spock what did you do to your face?”

“The Andorian Ferrets residing in Biology Lab 4 escaped.”

Jim gave him a sad smile, “I take it you had a rough day then? Because Bones was griping about having had a ton of injuries coming from Sciences today.”

Jim flipped up the collar on Spock’s lab coat, “And because you managed to forget that you had this on.”

Spock put the collar back down, “It was something of a taxing day if that is what you are attempting to convey.”

Jim smiled and ruffled Spock’s already somewhat messy hair, “Go take a shower, you’ll feel better.”

Jim hugged him, and Spock hugged him back.

\------

Spock stood at the counter, he’d washed off the bite marks on his hand while showering. And had found a medkit in the cabinet. He was trying to use the dermal regenerator on his hand, but the only problem was that his left hand was his dominant hand, and he didn’t need to make a racket by dropping it. However, it was proving to be very difficult to do it himself.

Jim knocked on the door, “Spock? Are you okay? You’ve been in there a while.”

Spock sighed lightly, he had been a while, and Jim was eventually just going to come in, assuming Spock didn’t just give in and ask him for help. 

“Jim?” Spock responded, “Can you come in?”

Jim’s voice was hitched with a bit of panic, “The door’s locked. Do you need me to force it open?”

Spock internally smiled at his boyfriend, but went and opened the door.

Jim walked in, seeing the medkit on the counter, “What are you doing?”

Spock’s cheeks flushed a bit, he didn’t really like asking for help when it came to much of anything. Especially when it came to injuries. Let alone hand injuries.

“I require your assistance,” Spock said quietly.

Jim grabbed Spock’s hands in his own, “Anything, what do you need?”

Spock looked down at their hands, face blushing more. Jim looked at their hands as well, realizing what he was doing, “Sorry.”

He let go, Spock didn’t want him to. He could feel the nerves of the day washing away when they touched, and just wanted to feel that. Jim looked at his hand a bit of green blood on them.

He looked to Spock, “I’m guessing this what you need help with.”

Spock nodded and showed him his hand. Jim grabbed the regenerator, and went to do it, but stopped.

He looked at Spock, he looked so tired, like he might just collapse. Jim gave him a kiss and wrapped his arms around him, lifting him up onto the counter. Jim took up the regenerator again and started going over the wound.

“Spock?”

Spock looked to Jim, still a little confused as to why he was placed on a countertop, and trying to compensate for the unguarded emotion flowing from Jim, “Yes k’diwa?”

Jim smiled at the nickname, “What the hell did you do?”

Spock blushed a bit again, but tried his best to keep it short, “I was bitten by one of the fauna residing in the biology lab when it was startled.”

Jim laughed a bit, “What do you mean by ‘fauna’? I’m no scientist, but I don’t think that Andorian ferrets are that big or have teeth like this. And it honestly looks like a snake bite.”

Spock just looked at him but said nothing.

Jim’s expression went a bit flat, “It’s a snake bite isn’t it?”

Spock nodded shyly, almost sheepishly.

“We have a snake  _ this _ big, on  _ this _ ship!?” Jim blurted, gesturing to Spock’s hand.

“Yes, Jim. If you recall, you confiscated a ball python from an Ensing had attempted to smuggle aboard the ship and sent her to reside in Sciences,” Spock said flatly, “She can be quiet fearful under certain circumstances, including those which occurred almost constantly today. As a result, she panicked, and as most animals will, bit.”

Jim paused for a moment, trying to recall the memory of the day, “Ohhh.”

Jim finished up with his hand, and packed up the medkit, stowing it in the cabinet again. He helped Spock down from the counter, and they walked back into the main part of the room. Spock kind of just collapsed onto the bed and Jim sat down gently next to him, stroking his hair.

“I was gonna asked what happened today but I think it’s best if I don’t,” Jim said.

Spock didn’t say anything, not sure what to say. Jim laid down but kept himself propped up on his elbow. He looked into his love’s eyes, big, chocolate brown eyes, looking right back at him. Tired, but still holding the purely human curiosity they always did.

Jim kissed Spock’s forehead, “Get some sleep baby.”

Spock made a small mumble of conformation, but Jim was pretty sure he was already half asleep anyway. Snuggling up next to him, Jim pressed a kiss to his silky raven hair and drifted off to sleep himself.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Thank you for reading! Also, just something random, when I was writing "dermal regenerator" it auto corrected to "dermal refrigerator" so that was mildly hilarious. So was the part were it auto corrected to, "Jim grabbed the refrigerator..." So that happened. Thanks for reading!


End file.
